This is probably going to be a very unpopular opinion, but i am open to changing my mind, if someone can school me on this...

So many videos these days (especially park/trick videos) are all about rails/boardslides. And i see new boarders coming along and saying "I am comfortable on rails/boxes but need help with linking my toeside turns", as if the first thing they did after learning to leaf, was to start practicing railslides...

But why is it so popular?

For bombers and carving fans i see the attraction. Speed, G-forces, it feels great. Same for BC and powder hounds - floating sensation cant be beat. For me its jumps; flying through the air is an incredible rush, especially since i am actually fairly scared of heights. But what is it about rails that everybody is getting stoked on?

towards the end of last season, and this season, i have been trying to get into them, stomped some boardslides and 50-50s. Landed on my ass a lot, and made me realized that they are a lot more difficult than they look. But is that it? Is it because they are not easy to do? The ones where i didnt fall, gave me a slight rush of cheating death (or lost teeth), but there was no great type feel. Is that something that comes with the more difficult rails/kink style stuff?

So for rail and jib junkies, can you please help me understand the thrill of what you do?

I think most films are a decent mix of everything and there's films that focus more on one or the other. There's enough out there that everyone should be able to get their fix.

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"People say that marijuana smoking is going to get in the way of my career. I say to them that on the contrary, my fighting career is getting in the way of my marijuana smoking." -Nick Diaz

ICary, thanks for that. Sort of like BC guys hiking out to find an untouched line huh? I can see that would be cool to have sort of 'ownership' over that rail.

FWIW, i think that people doing rails look stylish as hell. My DT background is of some crazy long tailpress down a stadium hand rail or something like that (thanks Onboardmag!). It also changes to some shots of people jumping off 2 story high buildings though

And i see new boarders coming along and saying "I am comfortable on rails/boxes but need help with linking my toeside turns", as if the first thing they did after learning to leaf, was to start practicing railslides...

claiming on the Internet is one thing, but I doubt anyone serious enough to be dope hitting the rails & boxes has trouble with the most basic aspects of snowboarding. It just don't work like that. What you'll find is beginner kids attempting and failing but there won't be any consistency. There's a hierarchy in skills one needs to advance to other things especially freestyle, every now and then someone's raw athletic ability & prowess will allow them to skip a step but it never really translates well in any further progression.